With the Internet boom, it became obvious to franchisors that the web was the place to be marketing. As a result, these franchisors have put a lot of resources toward developing their own real estate portals to primarily feed the business of franchisees. Of course, every real estate website, regardless of size and scale, is dependent on the listing of homes to attract visitors and potential prospects. The home data featured is provided via Internet Data Exchange (IDX) agreements with local Multiple Listing Services (MLS) of which franchisee real estate brokers are members.

Per a previous N.A.R. rule change in January of this year, franchisors were permitted to showcase IDX data on their website by virtue of having a representative franchisee who was an existing local MLS participant. An example of one such IDX agent feed is on a website like this one for Highlands Ranch, Colorado real estate.

The previous rule change created some trouble, however, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, there are some franchisees that don’t want help from their franchisor in this regard. They have their own website portals for serving a regional area and didn’t want to be forced to compete with their own franchisor to garner website traffic.

Secondly, there are independent websites and companies that also compete directly with real estate franchisors for traffic. It is their view that the January rule change gave franchisors and unfair competitive advantage in advertising home data to which they were not entitled.

So as a compromise, the N.A.R. board pushed the new “opt-in” rule change through. However, the matter is certainly not settled and one can expect to see more fireworks as real estate companies, brokers and agents continue to struggle over the territories in the web space.

It makes perfect sense really. As a realtor you have special access to privileged information about the housing market. Specifically, that information is the inventory of available property listings. To make your website a true real estate business success you must leverage that privileged listing information and maximize its potential.

Think of your website as an online store. Your online store can only meet the needs of your visitors if it is stocked with merchandise that they want. As a realtor, that merchandise is property listings, news about the current market, and buying and selling information. For the most part, homeseekers only seek out a realtor website for one main reason and that is to search for property. This is true 92% of the time. Failure to provide a property search to your visitors is tantamount to opening an online store with no products on the shelves.

What is IDX?

Property searches can take many different forms. What form they take is largely dependent on your Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and web hosting company. The MLS plays the major role in what kind of property search you can make available to your clients. Since a property search is compiled from the data they provide, an MLS sets the rules and regulations on how that data can be disseminated and displayed. Some MLSs are more restrictive than others, and it is these restrictions that will determine what kind of IDX property search you ultimately receive.

The acronym IDX stands for Internet Data Exchange. Internet data exchange refers to a reciprocal data sharing agreement between an MLS and real estate brokers and vendors. The agreement consists of protocols for how the MLS data will be shared and transmitted. The Real Estate Transaction Standard (RETS) is currently the most popular form of IDX data transmission. The agreement covers the limit to which this information can be broadcast and who can market the data in public spaces. The IDX agreement also comprises how search data will be formatted and displayed. IDX data can be distributed by the MLS itself, its members, or by vendors such as web hosting companies.

Ordinarily, IDX searches are provided in two main styles. One style is framed and the other style is unframed. As a default, most MLSs offer some form of a framed search to their realtor members and the general public. This type of MLS search is better than nothing, and in the arena of real estate marketing, beggars can’t be choosers. However, there are severe limitations to most framed property searches.

The most profound limitation and drawback is that most framed searches do not feature any form of lead capture or broker/realtor specific lead generation. Considering that you are leveraging the search data to generate leads, the absence of any lead capture is a total disaster. There are workarounds that realtors can implement on their websites to overcome this major deficiency of most framed searches. Look for me to discuss these workaround options in a later article.

Another major drawback to framed searches is that you have no control over what property data is displayed to the user and how that data is presented. The MLS or vendor decides what information to include and how this information will look. This can lead to endless frustration for realtors with a branded website because the colors of the framed search may or may not match their color scheme and theme. Additionally, not being able to manipulate what listing data is available can be a serious problem. Some realtors prefer for their clients to be able to see the physical addresses of properties they find. Other realtors do not. Regardless of what may be preferred, the decision in a framed search is made for them.

The best case scenario for IDX is an unframed IDX search where an MLS is reasonably flexible and has very few formatting restrictions. Fewer formatting restrictions means that a vendor, such as a web hosting company, has relative freedom to make the IDX the best it can be by using their programming and editorial resources.

All IDX searches are not created equal. Certain real estate web hosting vendors are better than others at building an IDX search that is optimized for prospecting purposes. I have yet to see an IDX better than that offered by Superlative in their Version 6 product. The Superlative Mapping IDX solution looks phenomenal, has lead capture integrated throughout, as well as a complete back-end lead management system. To top it all off, their IDX is fully customizable! Realtor and broker clients can include or omit whatever search fields they desire and specifically choose how the search results are displayed.

Which Website Would You Prefer?
Listed below are some current realtor websites that are live on the Internet today. These sites were selected based on their differences in property search content. Click the corresponding links to each site and try to view them from the perspective of an ordinary web surfer looking to search for available real estate.
No IDX Search	Framed IDX Search	Unframed IDX

Tips For Spotting A Good IDX Search

It wasn’t that long ago (approximately four years) that a real estate web site wasn’t expected to be much more than an extension of an agent’s marketing portfolio. Not long ago, a successful realtor website was simply one that looked great and impressed visitors. Times have changed dramatically and now a realty web site is expected to serve as a primary prospecting tool. As I mentioned above, the key to online prospecting and lead generation success for real estate professionals is leveraging the property search. An unframed MLS search is preferred.

This, of course, begs the question: What is a good IDX search? The following are a few key elements to look for when making a decision on what IDX is best for your business:

1. Easy To Use Navigation: Visiting prospects should be able to intuitively navigate through the property search with ease. Don’t give your potential clients a headache because they can’t easily find the MLS search on your site and then use the search to get the information they want.
2. Lead Capture Integrated Throughout: The whole point of the website is to build your business and generate leads. Make sure the IDX you use can facilitate business growth. Lead capture methods are automated processes built into the IDX that gather information from visitors. When the visitors provide the requested information, the info is then forwarded to you as a lead. Lead capture methods warrant an entire training course of their own, but some examples for IDX include saving a custom search, saving a property listing, and requesting to receive property updates.
3. State Of The Art Display: Like products in a store, the actual property display should look as impressive as possible. Flexibility and options for changing the presentation of displayed listings is always preferred. The best IDX currently available actually allows you to customize the search criteria that is queried by prospects.
4. Additional Features And Services: Actual listing data is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to a property listing. Good IDX will also feature virtual tours (if available) and automated services like scheduling a showing or emailing a listing to a friend. Another big key is that the listing information be displayed in such a way that it looks like your own. Generating leads for your broker, or worse, your competition!, is never good. Good IDX prominently displays your contact information on all listings while properly adhering to MLS rules and regulations.

That’s it for this treatment of IDX. We’re going to keep on rolling in the next lesson and delve further into the tactics of lead capture. Missing that lesson could actually cost you potential business so be sure to check it out!